Egyptian Pharaohs/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby are visiting a museum. They stop to look at an Egyptian pharaoh's throne. MOBY: Beep. TIM: I know. How cool would it be to be pharaoh? Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, I'm trying to find out information on the pharaohs in Egypt. Can you help me? From, Justine. Sure! The pharaohs were the kings of Ancient Egypt. The term pharaoh actually comes from a word that means great house. An image shows the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for great house. TIM: Ancient Egypt's monarchy lasted from about 3000 BCE to 30 BCE. A map shows the general area of ancient Egypt, including the area around the Nile River and the Nile delta. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh, a monarchy is a form of government headed by one ruler who has supreme power for life. The kingdom of ancient Egypt was structured in a rigid hierarchy. On the bottom were slaves, and above them were free working people, like farmers and soldiers. Scribes, priests and nobles were higher up on the social pyramid. And at the very top was the pharaoh, the political and religious leader of Egypt. An image represents the Egyptian hierarchy, presented as a pyramid. The lowest layer of the pyramid shows slaves building with bricks and carrying bricks. The level above that is made of working people, who are cleaning fish, farming, or dressed for battle. The next layer up shows a noble and a scribe. The top layer shows the pharaoh. TIM: Being pharaoh carried a lot of responsibilities. As the political leader, he made laws and collected taxes. MOBY: Beep. In Moby's imagination, the doorbell rings. Moby opens the front door. A pharaoh is standing there. Moby frowns. TIM: No, it didn't quite work like that. Usually, people gave the pharaoh a percentage of their grain, their livestock; whatever they had. An image shows an Egyptian handing a pharaoh a large platter of farm produce. TIM: As the religious leader, the pharaoh was the high priest of every Egyptian temple. That means he had to perform rituals and oversee the construction of new temples. An image shows a pharaoh standing in the doorway of a large Egyptian temple. TIM: Pharaohs were thought to be a human form of Horus, one of the most important gods the Egyptians worshiped. Horus had a falcon's head because he was god of the sky. An image shows an illustration of the Egyptian god Horus. He has a falcon's head and a human body. TIM: In images on temples and in tombs, pharaohs are usually shown carrying things that symbolize their total power. Two of the most common are the flail, or whip, and the crook, a tool used by shepherds. Another symbol of authority was the uraeus, a stylized cobra usually worn on the forehead. An image shows a seated pharaoh. Other images show a flail, a crook, and a uraeus. These things move over to the image of the pharaoh as Tim describes them. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, most historians believe that the pyramids were built as tombs for the pharaohs. An animation shows several Egyptian pyramids. One is shown in cross-section. Passages and chambers can be seen inside. TIM: When a pharaoh died, he was mummified, then sealed inside the pyramid with food and other stuff he'd need for the afterlife. An animation shows a pharaoh's funeral procession. The pharaoh is carried in a sarcophagus, like a coffin, and people follow carrying large jars on their heads. TIM: Pyramids were huge undertakings. The Great Pyramid of Giza, built for the pharaoh Khufu, took about twenty years and tens of thousands of workers to build! An image shows the Great Pyramid. A second image shows Egyptian workers moving the large stone blocks needed to build the Great Pyramid. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, yeah. Even with all that wealth and power, being a pharaoh definitely had its downside. There was always the threat of assassination. An animation shows a pharaoh walking in his courtyard. Someone with a dagger lurks behind a pillar, watching him. TIM: And pharaohs were also military leaders, who had to fend off attacks from other countries. An image shows a pharaoh in a chariot. Soldiers march behind him in formation. Enemies fall in front of him. TIM: Plus; since they were considered gods, pharaohs could be blamed for things like a drought, or disease, or a bad harvest. Side-by-side images show dry, cracked ground, Egyptians killed by disease, and an unsuccessful wheat crop. An animation shows a crowd of Egyptians protesting loudly in front of a pharaoh's temple. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right. So the Egyptian monarchy was divided into dynasties, or successions of leaders in the same family. There were thirty-two different dynasties in the Egyptian monarchy's 3,000-year reign. Scrolling text shows the names of the Egyptian dynasties and the time period of each. TIM: One of the most famous pharaohs is Ramesses II, who ruled about 3,200 years ago, during the 19th dynasty. An animation shows Ramesses II standing in his palace. TIM: He's famous for building giant temples and because he was once believed to be the pharaoh mentioned in Exodus, the second book of the Hebrew Bible. Moses walks up to Ramesses. Moses is carrying a staff. TIM: Before him, Akhenaten, from the 18th Dynasty, is famous for trying to set up a monotheistic religion, worshiping only one god. An animation shows Akhenaten, with religious art on a wall behind him. TIM: And everyone's heard of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut. An image shows King Tut's sarcophagus. TIM: Tutankhamun wasn't an especially important pharaoh, but after his gold-filled tomb was discovered in nineteen twenty-two, he became world-famous. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Sure, there were a few female pharaohs, too. Like Hatshepsut, who led Egypt through one of its richest periods. An image shows Hatshepsut. Text explains that she lived from about 1508 to 1458 BCE. TIM: And actually, the very last pharaoh was a woman. That was Cleopatra the Seventh. She ruled during the Ptolemaic Dynasty. An image shows Cleopatra the Seventh. Text reads: Ptolemaic Dynasty, 305 BCE to 30 BCE. TIM: Her dynasty, and the entire Egyptian monarchy, ended when Rome conquered Egypt in 30 BCE. After that, Egypt became a province of Rome. An animated world map shows the conquests of the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean region. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah. All things considered, I guess I'm better off just being a normal kid. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Social Studies Transcripts